New user here, just received and am getting familiar with AD2pHAT device. First, an amazing collection of hardware/software, so thanks for all the hard work that went into this product. After a bit of a learning curve, I've got it mostly figured out, but having difficulty getting it running stable and reliable.
As for background, I have it mounted on a headless RPiZero, running the latest AlarmDecoder-provided "Raspbian Buster 10 PiBakery build." I updated the Raspbian image to the latest Buster code via 'apt-get update' and 'apt-get dist-upgrade', etc. I configured the unit using the webapp interface from a Windows PC and updated the webapp sw to most current via the webapp's interface. I have installed and am using the AlarmDecoder Keypad App V2.0.10 on the same Windows PC. My alarm system is a 20-yr old (originally installed in July 2000) ADT Safewatch Pro 2000, Vista 20SE system board. It is not currently connected to ADT monitoring service, it's just a stand-alone (fairly extensive) local system.
Initially it appeared everything was working correctly, but as I got a bit further into trying to use it, I ran into severe issues with controlling the Alarm system via the AlarmDecoder's keypad interface, either via the webapp or the Keypad App. Specifically, when I go into Program Mode on the alarm panel [installer code + 800], and then *82 for altering the alpha descriptions for zones, the AlarmDecoder seems to get lost. It will display garbage and partial messages on the AlarmDecoder's display, keypad entries are not acted on, and the KeyPad App was even reporting fire trouble messages coming and going (and no, the alarm panel was not alarming). Note that these functions work fine when entered from the "real" ADT keypad. At one point it was so hosed up I had to power-cycle the alarm panel to get any keypad working again.
Initially I was on firmware 2.2a.8.8 (that's what came loaded), but based on another posting here, it was suggested the latest beta release may be better, so I upgraded the firmware to 2.2a.8.9b-306. Bad idea - the message corruption was different, but even worse. So I started shopping around with different firmware versions and finally landed on 2.2a.6, the version labeled "ADEMCO OLD Protocol." That one does seem to work (I am able to properly program the alarm system just like I'm in front of the real keypad), BUT it appears the most current webapp is incompatible with that old firmware. When going through setup via the webapp, it always fails on the "Keypad communication (Receive)" step, saying "Test timed out," and worse, when viewing the live log messages via the Log function of the Keypad App, it is rolling on a repeated sequence of
!>
!CONFIG>ADDRESS=31&CONFIGBITS=ff05&LRR=N&EXP=NNNNN&REL=NNNN&MASK=ffffffff&DEDUPLICATE=Y
!VER:ffffffff,V2.2a.6,TX;RX;SM;VZ;RF;ZX;RE;AU;3X;CG;DD;MF;LR;KE;MK;CB
repeating every 10 seconds with other expected messages interspersed (e.g "DISARMED CHIME Ready to Arm", !RFX …)
I know the repeating "!> …" is coming from the webapp because if I kill the web app (sudo systemctl stop gunicorn) and then manually restart the ser2sock process, the system behaves normally, but only via the Keypad App.
So I'd like some advice on where to go from here. I'd like to have the webapp working and available, but I also want a stable firmware that will work with my old panel. And I'm fine with sticking with that old firmware unless there is significant functionality I'm missing. Is there an older version of the webapp that will work properly with that firmware? Or perhaps just tell me which python file needs to be tweaked to stop the rolling "!> …" ?
I can certainly provide detailed logs of what's happening with the newer firmware, but suffice it to say it's not pretty, and I don't expect anyone to put any work into fixing it since it's obviously a non-issue to the vast majority of users on newer panels.
Thanks for any help that can be provided!
- Mark
I have SE panels to test with and AFAIK it is stable on 2.2a.8.9.